The slab King kiao pei, bearing the inscription, was found, according to
Father Havret, 2nd Pt., p. 71, in the sub-prefecture of Chau Chi, a
dependency of Si-ngan fu, among ancient ruins. Prof. Pelliot says that the
slab was not found at Chau Chi, but in the western suburb of Si-ngan, at
the very spot where it was to be seen some years ago, before it was
transferred to the Pei lin, in fact at the place where it was erected in
the seventh century inside the monastery built by Olopun. (Chretiens de
l'Asie centrale, T'oung pao, 1914, p. 625.)
In 1907, a Danish gentleman, Mr. Frits V. Holm, took a photograph of the
tablet as it stood outside the west gate of Si-ngan, south of the road to
Kan Su; it was one of five slabs on the same spot; it was removed without
the stone pedestal (a tortoise) into the city on the 2nd October 1907, and
it is now kept in the museum known as the Pei lin (Forest of Tablets).
Holm says it is ten feet high, the weight being two tons; he tried to
purchase the original, and failing this he had an exact replica made by
Chinese workmen; this replica was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in the City of New York, as a loan, on the 16th of June, 1908. Since,
this replica was purchased by Mrs. George Leary, of 1053, Fifth Avenue,
New York, and presented by this lady, through Frits Holm, to the Vatican.
See the November number (1916) of the Boll, della R. Soc.
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